Double Commonwealth Champion,Ossie Duran a.k.a Osumanu Yahaya has vowed to defend his title with cheeky ease as he fights Irishman,Neil ?Sinky? Sinclair in London on September 23.
?I will beat him up?,the Commonwealth Light Middleweight champion told the Graphic Sports confidently in an interview.
Thirty-one-year-old Sinclair,a former British welterweight champion, comes into the bout with a record of 28 wins and four losses.
Ossie Duran (19-4-1, 9 KOs) though confident of a win must not rule out the possibility of a brave and hard challenge from the Briton.
Out of his 28 wins, 23 were by way of knockout.The Ghanaian light middleweight boxer,will face a knockout specialist who has more fight experience.
Perhaps one advantage Yahaya will have against his Irish opponent will be confidence which he has drawn from consistent wins he mantained in his last four fights.
After defeating Joshua ?Bukom Tsatsu? Okine in December 2003 to win the vacant Commonwealth welterweight title, he recorded another win against Agoe Ashong a.k.a Odorkor Tyson, through a unanimous decision on March 6, 2004.
With his form fast-improving,he handed British light middleweight, Jamie ?Mikey? Moore a third round knockout to win the Commonwealth light middleweight title.
This happened to be the second defeat in Moore?s career. Beninios,Frank Daabisi who had his debut against Yahaya in December 2004, fell prey and lost through a third round knockout at the Ohene Djan Stadium.
Osumanu Yahaya also has the WBF European Welterweight title, which he wrestled from Delroy Mellis in December 2001 and defended successfully against Glenn McClarnon in February 2003.
?I have seen him fight in the UK a couple of times and know where the loopholes are,?Osumanu Yayaha told the Graphic Sports.
In June 2003 however,the 28-year-old failed to add the IBF Inter-continental welterweight title to his collection when he lost on points in a closely contested bout to undefeated Sergey Styopkin in Podolsk, Russia.
Sinclair on the other hand,has had all his fights within the boundaries of Great Britain and will surely enjoy the home advantage as he steps up to the Ghanaian.
He defeated Harry Dhami in 2001 to win the British welterweight title and sucessfully defended it against Derek Roche, Paul Knights and Bradley Price.
He however lost his last bout last March to Taz Jones through a technical knockout after he sustained a cut on his eyelid.
With his comparatively small knockout record of nine out of his 19 wins, Yahaya is hungry for a 10th knockout but Sinclair who is also in a class of his own is likely to prove a tough customer.
This stems from the fact that he will be looking forward to making up for his painful loss to Taz Jones last March.
The 2004 SWAG Best Professional Boxer will leave town next week for the assignment.To this end he is undergoing intensive training sessions at the Black Panthers gym in Accra to toughen his muscles,and sharpen his jabs for the title defence. According to the boxer, training has gone well so far.
